Wednesday, December 10, 2008

The recent death of Forrest J Ackerman and yesterday’s post at the blog SF Signal about the used and rare book site AbeBooks reminds me of an interesting Ackerman item that I first saw listed on AbeBooks several weeks ago. The item, titled “I Bequeath,” is a 23-page list of books that Forry had printed up back in 1946:

Description: 23 leaves, including front cover, with single-spaced text mimeographed on recto side only. One leaf may be missing,at end. (4to) 11x8½, original printed tan paper staple-bound wrappers. One of 500 copies, mimeographed by C. Everett Evans, plus additional pencil notations and check marks throughout; these add a number of titles. These insertions may or may not have be in Ackerman's hand; some distinctive traits appear to match those of the cover signature, others do not. ...

He collected SF books and memorabilia from the very first, publishing in I Bequeath (to the Fantasy Foundation) a bibliography of the first 1300 items, and eventually housing his 300,000-item library, which he called the Fantasy Foundation, in a 17-room house in Hollywood, the maintenance of which proved difficult to manage over the years. The library was further celebrated in Souvenir Book of Mr. Science Fiction's Fantasy Museum (1978). Disposals of collectable books have been made at times; and part of the library was auctioned in 1987, grossing over $550,000. ...

"I'm an optimist. I discard all such dark tomorrows. I have faith in man as God and God as man; I believe we'll be immortal, seed the stars and live forever in the flesh of our children. That's my job as a writer -- to show man his basic goodness, to dramatize his struggle up and away from this planet." -- RB